Editorial

In this issue of Higher Learning Research Communications (HLRC), our guest author, Dr. Ned Strong, explains why Harvard University opened the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Santiago, Chile and how this center contributes positively to Harvard’s goal for international engagement. Strong illustrates how the center has established collaborations with universities and other organizations in the region (which includes Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Uruguay) expanding academic and research opportunities for faculty and students through the establishment of programs and funding opportunities.Also, in this issue, we have the great pleasure of introducing research conducted by international faculty, university administrators, and others in the field of higher education. The common goal of all the research presented here is the improvement of the teaching-learning process and the enhancement of the student learning experience. Relevant topics in higher education such as program evaluation and development, curriculum assessment and improvement, among others, are discussed.Transformation of tourism and hospitality education means the application of new educational approaches. In the first article, Goh proposes an integration of two educational models with the objective of promoting scholarship among tourism and hospitality institutions in Australia. Through a description of the current model of teaching, and the introduction of an integrated alternative model in tourism and hospitality, the author provides tools and activities that can be incorporated by educators into their teaching protocols and the curriculum.Harris, Martin and Martin studied a topic of much importance for counselor education programs: how to improve the wellbeing of counseling students in training to enhance professional competence. The participants of the study rated themselves in areas related to psychological well-being, personal growth, self-acceptance, among others. The authors analyzed the results of the self- evaluations and provide recommendations on how educators and program administrators could evaluate and improve wellness in counseling students and the implications of psychological wellness in the professional practice of counselors.In a study aimed at determining readiness and potential for program accreditation, Loushine tested a curriculum assessment method to assess the curricula of two safety degree programs, specifically, if the components of the curricula align with the knowledge requirements for the professional practice of occupational safety. The author explains how the exercise of evaluating the curricula, including obtaining feedback from faculty and students, proved to be an effective tool to identify strengths and weaknesses in the programs and an outstanding resource for program improvement. Kam and Hoop evaluated an interaction-guided approach in science courses offered entirely online to elementary and middle school teachers in a Master’s degree program. The researchers studied how an inquiry-based, hands-on model encourages interaction among learners in science courses and how that ultimately results in collaborative learning in the online environment and development of tools and skills that could be useful for educators.The Editor

Drama in education as a method to teach Grade 1 life skills with science as integrating theme

Abstract : When children start their engagement with science content, they lay the foundation for future learning. This study describes the views of Grade 1 teachers and learners on the use of science content to integrate the teaching of the Grade 1 Life Skills curriculum of the third term. The central premise of this study was to develop a programme that will integrate the Grade 1 Life Skills curriculum by using drama in education as an integrating tool and science content as conceptual fodder for the programme. The premise of the inquiry is that learners can benefit from an integrated curriculum as it enables learners to value the content taught and how it connects to other curriculum topics with real world implications. I argue that drama in education conventions can be used as an integrating tool as it allows for active participation and student centred learning experiences. The study proposes that using science content as the driving for the programme allows for early exposure to this neglected learning area in the foundation phase and ensures that concepts are understood before more advanced terminology is learnt in the intermediate phase. The study was conducted at a private primary school in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. In a design based study, utilising qualitative data in three modalities, the study investigated teachers’ perspective on the way in which Life Skills is currently addressed in Grade 1 and the perceived success of the integrated program. These modes of data collection were individual interviews, observation protocol and video recordings. The unit of sampling was three Grade 1 teachers and 6 Grade 1 learners in this schools. The analysis was done using deductive coding. The pattern that was composed from the data analysis shows, in three themes, that the teachers were aware of the benefits of teaching Life Skills but due to the limited time available for teaching this subject area, they hardly focus on this learning area’s vast variety of content. With this in mind, eleven categories emerged from the analysis of the observations and post interviews with the teachers and learners that indicated that the teachers had positive attitudes towards the integration of the subject area and excitement arose from both the children and teachers when unpacking the success of each activity. The study discusses the data in the framework of third generation Cultural- Historic Activity Theory. This study recommends that FP teachers consider using science-based activities along with drama in education conventions to integrate the teaching of the v Life Skills content. The content taught in Life Skills is essential to the holistic development of learners. By using science content to integrate the teaching of Life Skills content teachers can evoke the learners’ interest in subject matter that improves the development of skills needed for learning in the 21st century. The study concludes that the integrated programme addressed most of the tensions that were identified within the activity and can possibly be used to integrate the Life Skills curriculum.M.Ed. (Childhood Education

Editorial

In this issue of Higher Learning Research Communications (HLRC), our guest author, Dr. Ned Strong, explains why Harvard University opened the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Santiago, Chile and how this center contributes positively to Harvard’s goal for international engagement. Strong illustrates how the center has established collaborations with universities and other organizations in the region (which includes Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Uruguay) expanding academic and research opportunities for faculty and students through the establishment of programs and funding opportunities.Also, in this issue, we have the great pleasure of introducing research conducted by international faculty, university administrators, and others in the field of higher education. The common goal of all the research presented here is the improvement of the teaching-learning process and the enhancement of the student learning experience. Relevant topics in higher education such as program evaluation and development, curriculum assessment and improvement, among others, are discussed.Transformation of tourism and hospitality education means the application of new educational approaches. In the first article, Goh proposes an integration of two educational models with the objective of promoting scholarship among tourism and hospitality institutions in Australia. Through a description of the current model of teaching, and the introduction of an integrated alternative model in tourism and hospitality, the author provides tools and activities that can be incorporated by educators into their teaching protocols and the curriculum.Harris, Martin and Martin studied a topic of much importance for counselor education programs: how to improve the wellbeing of counseling students in training to enhance professional competence. The participants of the study rated themselves in areas related to psychological well-being, personal growth, self-acceptance, among others. The authors analyzed the results of the self- evaluations and provide recommendations on how educators and program administrators could evaluate and improve wellness in counseling students and the implications of psychological wellness in the professional practice of counselors.In a study aimed at determining readiness and potential for program accreditation, Loushine tested a curriculum assessment method to assess the curricula of two safety degree programs, specifically, if the components of the curricula align with the knowledge requirements for the professional practice of occupational safety. The author explains how the exercise of evaluating the curricula, including obtaining feedback from faculty and students, proved to be an effective tool to identify strengths and weaknesses in the programs and an outstanding resource for program improvement. Kam and Hoop evaluated an interaction-guided approach in science courses offered entirely online to elementary and middle school teachers in a Master’s degree program. The researchers studied how an inquiry-based, hands-on model encourages interaction among learners in science courses and how that ultimately results in collaborative learning in the online environment and development of tools and skills that could be useful for educators.The Editor

Emergent requirements for supporting introductory programming

The problems associated with learning and teaching first year University Computer Science (CS1) programming classes are summarized showing that various support tools and techniques have been developed and evaluated. From this review of applicable support the paper derives ten requirements that a support tool should have in order to improve CS1 student success rate with respect to learning and understanding

Exploring innovative pedagogies in a global information context

SIG Innovative Pedagogies offers a panel that includes four sets of speakers who examine innovative pedagogies for LIS education in a global information context. Each presentation features a different innovative pedagogical approach. Presentations are followed by an interactive discussion period, and attendees are invited to continue the conversation after the program via Twitter. Kyungwon Koh and Alaine Martaus discuss Design thinking for teaching the foundations of librarianship, showing how design thinking can be a tool of innovation for teaching core courses in LIS graduate programs. Their talk also features examples of how they applied design thinking in their course designs, and includes details about course assignments, student projects, and reflections. Denice Adkins and Nina Exner show how Using Library Carpentry methods and resources in the LIS classroom can be used for technology training in LIS education programs. This presentation provides an overview of the Library Carpentry instructional approach and shows how it is different from traditional LIS classroom instruction. Adkins and Exner conclude with an overview of Library Carpentry lesson design principles and standards that can be used for LIS classrooms and LIS practitioner training. Vandana Singh discusses Integrating professional librarians into open source software (OSS) communities. Singh notes that professional librarians are increasingly integrated into OSS communities, and she shows how this integration has inspired an innovative participatory action model for OSS that can be used to guide curricula for current LIS students as well as continuing education programs for working practitioners. In Gender, community and narrative: Exploring the social aspects of fanfiction, Kristen Schuster and Brittany Kelley show how creative aspects of fanfiction contributes to the development and maintenance of social networks, which in turn facilitates deeper and transferrable forms of learning and literacy. In this talk, Schuster and Kelley combine learning theory and information behavior models into a framework for teaching literacy and information-seeking practices

Teaching programming at a distance: the Internet software visualization laboratory

This paper describes recent developments in our approach to teaching computer programming in the context of a part-time Masters course taught at a distance. Within our course, students are sent a pack which contains integrated text, software and video course material, using a uniform graphical representation to tell a consistent story of how the programming language works. The students communicate with their tutors over the phone and through surface mail. Through our empirical studies and experience teaching the course we have identified four current problems: (i) students' difficulty mapping between the graphical representations used in the course and the programs to which they relate, (ii) the lack of a conversational context for tutor help provided over the telephone, (iii) helping students who due to their other commitments tend to study at 'unsociable' hours, and (iv) providing software for the constantly changing and expanding range of platforms and operating systems used by students. We hope to alleviate these problems through our Internet Software Visualization Laboratory (ISVL), which supports individual exploration, and both synchronous and asynchronous communication. As a single user, students are aided by the extra mappings provided between the graphical representations used in the course and their computer programs, overcoming the problems of the original notation. ISVL can also be used as a synchronous communication medium whereby one of the users (generally the tutor) can provide an annotated demonstration of a program and its execution, a far richer alternative to technical discussions over the telephone. Finally, ISVL can be used to support asynchronous communication, helping students who work at unsociable hours by allowing the tutor to prepare short educational movies for them to view when convenient. The ISVL environment runs on a conventional web browser and is therefore platform independent, has modest hardware and bandwidth requirements, and is easy to distribute and maintain. Our planned experiments with ISVL will allow us to investigate ways in which new technology can be most appropriately applied in the service of distance education

Integrating Technology With Student-Centered Learning

Reviews research on technology's role in personalizing learning, its integration into curriculum-based and school- or district-wide initiatives, and the potential of emerging digital technologies to expand student-centered learning. Outlines implications

The QTKanji project : an analysis of the relationship between computer assisted language learning (CALL) and the development of autonomous language learners : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Further thesis content held on disc is unreadable.An analysis of the relationship between computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and the development of autonomous language learners Computer assisted language learning (CALL) software is being introduced into tertiary language programmes for a number of reasons. Research has indicated that CALL is effective for language learning, that it caters for individual learning needs and that it promotes independent learning. By providing structured learning, students can study in their own time without a teacher. Whilst it is now commonly accepted that CALL material must be carefully integrated into the curriculum for it to be effective, there is a move in CALL research away from just evaluation of software to a greater focus on the learner. It is maintained that understanding different learning styles and learner preferences is essential in the creation of CALL packages, and that packages are sufficiently flexible to cater for learners of different ability to manage their own learning. However, while an attraction of CALL is that it fosters independent learning, it is not clear what learners do when they are in the process of becoming independent learners, what CALL environments will foster the development of independent learning skills, and the type of learner who will benefit. This thesis examines the in-house development and trialling of kanji software at the Auckland University of Technology, taking into account the direction of current research into CALL. It provides an initial evaluation of the software design and use, within the framework of research into second language acquisition, learner differences and independent learning. Findings from this initial study will be used to modify the software where necessary and to provide the basis for further research into CALL and language learning

Lessons for PreK-3rd From Montgomery County Public Schools

Presents a case study of how a district improved third-grade reading proficiency rates and narrowed the achievement gap, in spite of growing English Language Learner and low-income populations, by implementing an integrated early learning strategy